What Rachel Reeves does next? Surprised no thread on this yet. It's all over Twitter

[Sharingsomewisdom]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13764547/Rachel-Reeves-mulls-tax-hikes-spending-squeeze-raising-rents-social-housing-Chancellor-sees-Government-borrow-3bn-forecast-month.html

Or am I the only one interested what she is eying next? Any comment on the reasonableness or otherwise of Rachel's next focus?

Let’s face it the tories were so appalling that even if Labour had said pre election they were going to raise taxes and post dog shit through peoples letterboxes every week they were still the better option ! That’s the real problem and continues to be - they are just trying to sort out the mess that’s been left for them and it’s going to be hard.

I think the reality of Labour kicking in might dull some of this which has dominated for last few years, tedious and predictable as you say

There'll be plenty of criticism as people realise taxes going up and unions plus Labour isn't all that (public sector excluded)

44% of children in single parent families are in poverty. So enforcing CM through HMRC could potentially save the government some money as well as being the right thing to do.

What policies on growth did the Tories enact?

You should look at growth of the UK in comparison to pre pandemic levels, we are at 2.3%, Eurozone 4%, USA 7% France and Japan 3.7% and 3.2%, only Germany has done worse, in fact they've done very badly.

As i said, UK IS growing strongly BUT from a low base.

One thing that has hit us is interest on debt, something Truss made far worse, she caused UK Gilts to plunge in value and hence yields to rocket, (our debt interest rate) Hunt stabilised that (still very high though) but the yields he borrowed at now have to be repaid.

Yes agree on turmoil, anything could happen in Ukraine or SE Asia and knock the world economy once again.

And yet...................https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/money-matters/3479693-Changes-to-Pension-Credit

Excellent idea and should be a priority

100% agree. It will start to bite soon. Much sooner than even I predicted.

How Starmer thought scrapping pensioner's money was a good idea when giving traindrivers, doctors etc. already on decent money a huge pay rise shows his views.

Unions will rise up and cause chaos this winter. People will change their view and the winds of change blow very quickly, but more fool them voting in this shower.

Yeah cos it’s been so feel good over the last 13 years 😂😂

I work and they are going to charge me an extra 20%!

This.
The article I read mentions inheritance tax and capital gains tax as the possible ones to raise.
We will see.
She cannot raise the HA rent but much, I think as it affects people on the lower earnings or in very expensive cities.
I would really like to see corporations getting a grip of how much profit they can take out of a business and still hace customers. Growth is important, of course, but pocketing record profits when in the middle of a crisis is not sustainable. They need to shoulder it too. What is the point of them making 20% more than last year if 50% of their customers will not be able to afford their products next year? I will have to re-mortgage my home to pay for Heinz beans at this rate! And eat them cold from the tin, of course, no money to heat them up!

I agree sadly!

But the Tories are more than one person - everyone can agree that Truss was absolute shit. But she's not been in power for the past year, Sunak has - and like him or loathe him (I tend toward the latter as I think his covid handouts were extremely irresponsible), the economy has improved under him. I actually think it was helped along by our election as I think people were obviously expecting Starmer to win and thought he'd be better for business. My original post merely remarked that RR had been oddly quiet about the fact the economy has turned out to be in better shape than expected, when you'd expect her to be thrilled. We have done horribly since covid, but we had Johnson and then Truss so I say again that we should be happy it's not a lot worse! But now we're out of covid - and brexit - and we are doing better than elsewhere, and I think we should be very thankful for that. It's not looking pretty out there :(

Because a large number of pensioners receiving the winter fuel allowance were also already on decent money too?

Paul Johnson of the IFS who seems to be held as the guru for all of this has said that while the books were open and the incoming government was aware of a lot of the problems, some of it had been hidden as it hadn't yet been disclosed officially so wasn't in the books.

fullfact.org/economy/labour-government-blackhole-public-finances/

They reap what they saw on this one. They’re going to have to tinker around with so many different taxes that they’ll end up being unpopular with everyone.

The winter fuel allowance will just be the first in a series of grossly unpopular moves. Wait till we get a colder winter than average this year and pensioners start dying.

It’s the posturing I can’t stand. Everyone knew there was no money before they added an additional several billion by agreeing crappy terms with the train drivers et al. They’re just treating us like complete idiots which is why they only got 20% of the vote

In a household with two adults you can't force a sale of the house to pay for care costs and make the adult who doesn't need care homeless. If I need care my house will be sold to pay for it, which is fine but I'm still paying proportionally more for less benefit and not because I'm better off to begin with.

Half of all single female pensioners are living on less than £259 a week total income. That’s a government fact.

I’m sick of the MN trope that all these pensioners are well off

20%????

It was 33.7%. More than any other party.

Did I say all? Don’t think I did.

Do you really think agreeing terms with the train drivers is crappy? Even Mark Harper who was negotiating with them in the previous government has publicly stated that the strikes cost more than the pay rise would have. Sou wouldn't it have made more sense to have settled years ago and had a fully functioning rail service and save some money?

x.com/simonscarrow/status/1824718855391842783?s=61&t=708dEn_EkpuN3JVBO9mR8A

There is a Pension Credit scheme, so you can find out if you are still entitled to the winter fuel allowance.
It will be means tested. Some pensioners have good incomes, so they may actually not need the top up.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/pension-credit-awareness-drive-as-thousands-of-eligible-pensioners-yet-to-claim--2#:~:text=The%20regulations%20to%20means%2Dtest,from%2016%20to%2022%20September.

Worthy for any pensioner and family members to check if they qualify.

I think there will be council tax reform.

Apologies I’ve not phrased that correctly.

20% of the voting population

iwishihadknownmore
Bottom line is Hunt cut 4% off NI and that now has to be paid for, some £12 billion, Hunt also didn't set aside any extra money for the pay review body pay rises, not one penny.

Hunt stole Labour's non-dom policy and extended windfall taxes. The Tories were also intending to ditch the remainder of the overseas climate aid pledge (made pre Ukraine/energy crisis) - saving £5 billion of unspent funding. Labour have chosen instead to honour that pledge;

("The Tories were preparing to ditch the pledge")

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/jul/26/ed-miliband-labour-honour-pledge-11bn-overseas-climate-aid

This is Labour we’re talking about here. They will spend,spend, spend. They will do the costings later. That’s what they do. They’ll be a one term party, and will probably lead us to bankruptcy before their time’s up.